


The One Where Pete and Gabe Are Actually Not Gay Together

by writemoretranscharacters



Category: Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: F/M, FTM Pete Wentz, Fights, Garage Bands, High School AU, M/M, Other, Trans, Transgender Characters, cheerleader dating the football player, gender fluid william beckett, mtf gabe saporta, ryans demi and brendons like 'who fuckin cares about gender' and then isnt in the rest of the story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-02-10
Packaged: 2018-09-20 14:16:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9495164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writemoretranscharacters/pseuds/writemoretranscharacters
Summary: Gabe's a new girl in Chicago and decides to fit in by joining the cheerleading team. Things don't go great and all she learns at school is that cis people are awful.Pete's a guy with a lot of friends, fifteen dollars to his name, an anger problem, and a half-assed football 'career'.They meet and decide cliques are fun sometimes.





	1. Chicago Is For Swallowing Your Anger

**Author's Note:**

> Hey. Lets write more trans band stories. And for my sake someone write another Dan/Ryan fic, I love those boys so much.  
> Also I know nothing about panic at the disco so I'm sorry I even put Brendon in this I just needed people.

There’s a lot of stories about the new girl cheerleader and the popular football player. Hot popular girl meets hot popular guy, they fall in love: boom, just saved you an hour and a half of most high school movies. This story is just a little different. For one thing the main people aren't white or cis.

-

Gabe started school in October after moving from Queens. She was really nervous, for a good set of reasons. Hell starting a new school was scary as is, but being transgender and in a new school and state? That was like a death sentence.  
Of course Gabe told her dad that and he told her to quit being dramatic. She has announced it while laying on the kitchen floor.  
Chicago was just a more dangerous version of Queens. Or maybe it was equally as dangerous, just with gangs instead of the mob and gangs. Gabe had a feeling she’d find out what the city had to offer for violence.

Considering who she was and the way she acted, she knew she was going to get a lot of shit. Gabe was known to be a little weird and dress odd. At 5’9 she stuck out, and a lot of Gabe’s clothes were things she cut up or altered herself so that didn’t help. A lot of girls didn’t dress like she did and that was fine. If anyone asked her ‘why are you wearing that?’ she had a million and one comebacks for it. Her favorite was ‘It’s fuckin punk’ or ‘You wear your hair like that everyday and no one questions how ugly it is’.   
She might have been a bit of a bitch. What can you do?

In her own defensive her self adopted mom Laura Jane Grace gave her confidence to be a loud, bitchy trans girl publicly. 

Gabe realized that on her third day of school. She wore loose ripped jeans with fishnets under them, a white Black Flag shirt that she cut herself and she had blown out her dark hair, keeping half of it pulled back. A bunch of girls gave her dirty looks and she heard some rather rude comments from girls that she met during cheer tryouts.   
Most of the things she heard was about her being a freak or a slut. That didn’t bother her that much. It was the tranny comments that upset her, but no one had started to say anything to her face. 

Gabe didn’t really care. She had like one friend who was weirder than she was. Ryland was some drama club freak who was hilarious and kind of a loser. But he thought Gabe was pretty and funny so he stuck around.

 

“I really don’t get this school,” Gabe mumbled into her Red Bull can.  
“Why?”  
“Girls here give me shit for everything I do. Apparently just having rips in my jeans makes me a slut.”   
“Well aren’t you a cheerleader too?” Ryland’s friend Suarez asked, “Cheerleaders are known to be slutty.”   
“I haven’t even been to one practice.”  
“Still.”  
“Girls here can be bitches. Why would you be a cheerleader?” Ryland asked.  
“Cause I like it and I’m good at it.” Gabe shrugged, “Plus it looks good on college stuff. My dad wants me to do it. And maybe I’m slutty, Suarez.”

 

Okay so Gabe’s agreement with her dad was a little more complicated than that. Gabe didn’t really give a shit about college. What she did care about was hormones. Her dad told her should could switch from T blockers to estrogen if she got her grades up and did one sport. Gabe complained since her school didn’t have soccer so she decided on cheerleading. 

It wasn’t a great idea, but it worked in theory. She was rather flexible from yoga and strong as hell. And she did have a theory about looking great in a uniform- which she did. Gabe did note that if any of her old Jersey City or Queens friends saw her in it, they’d kill her. Hell, she even wanted to beat the pep out of herself slightly.   
It was just a very feminine thing to do. Gabe had to admit that was a cool feeling. She wasn’t the most girly-girl; until she was 14 she wasn’t even considered a girl. But she did like it.

 

-

The first practice was rough. There were a couple rude things said about her height and body which just made her want to cry. Of course she was strong and kept her composure.   
She was actually good at cheer which shocked some of the girls. But they still gave her shit. They tried to watch her like she was under a microscope the whole time. Every tiny mistake she made was blown out of proportion. It was humiliating and really just made her mad.  
After practice her dad was late to pick her up, which just made her more pissed. He had to stay late to impress the boss since he was new at the office, but it still bothered her. Gabe was forced hang around the locker room. That meant she overheard a few of the girl talking about her.

“She’s like some fuckin drag queen. I can’t believe we have to deal with her,” one of the girls complained.  
“Fuckin tranny. She’s probably here just to creep on us.”  
“That’s gross we have to share the locker room with her. It’s disgusting. Make her use the boys.” another one added.

Gabe left after that. She didn’t need to hear everything she already knew.   
Aimlessly she wandered around the school.   
‘I’m more than that. I’m more than that,’ she repeated to herself mentally. It was hard when her biggest insecurity was voiced loudly and agreed upon by people she should be friends with.

Fuck cheerleaders. Fuck cis-girls.

 

Still, her dad wouldn’t be around until work ended, so she had to do something with her time. She figured exploring wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe she could actually figure out where the fuck anything was in the school.

Stopping at her locker, she organized it for a while. That would’ve been a good time killer if she actually a lot of stuff. But she was a junior, so she had jackshit. Some days teachers were lucky if she even had a pencil.  
Currently, her locker contained: a mechanical pencil with no led, crumpled papers from who knows what class, an empty ice tea bottle (very sanitary and necessary, Gabe), a history book, and a Distillers cd she ‘borrowed’ from Suarez. All things you need to be in AP classes. Clearly.

 

After about thirty minutes of that waste, she went outside to wait. To wait and maybe find a place to smoke. It had been almost a month since she had a smoke and Ryland looked old enough to buy her a pack. Of course he called her disgusting, but he gave it to her anyway.   
She really did trust herself walking anywhere and the steps to the parking lot looked fine. It was after school hours, she could smoke if she wanted to. Fuck the school.

 

Thankfully it wasn’t raining, it was always fucking raining. That Morrissey quote was about Chicago, Gabe was sure. Queens had it's crappy days and a permanent gray sky, but that was nothing compared to the hell that was Chicago's weather.

Sitting, smoking with headphones in actually wasn’t bad. That was until someone tapped on her shoulder making her jump.

“Got a light?” a deep voice asked when she took her headphones out and looked up. Way up. 

“Uh- y-yeah,” Gabe stuttered, trying to make her voice higher. She took it out of her leather jacket pocket and handed it to the guy.  
He was tall- taller than her which she liked, and had dark eyes. 

“Thanks.” he said, lighting up and passing it back to her. He offered his pack in return.

“Thanks,” she accepted and lit up as well. That was actually her third cigarette. Making good choices wasn't on today's agenda.

The guy watched her as she smoked which was nerve racking. He must have decided she was alright since he sat down next to her.  
Letting out smoke he asked, “You’re new, yeah?”

“Yeah. How’d y-”

“You’re friends with Ryland. I know him and his crew.”

“Oh. Yeah. UH- he’s in some of my classes so him and his boyfriend let me sit with them.”

The guy laughed with a deep, comfortable laugh and said, “I know you either mean Dan or Suarez, but they’re not dating.”

“Oh. Sorry. Him and Suarez would be really cute together in my defense,” Gabe laughed a little.

“They would be… I’m Travis by the way, or Travie. Your pick.”

“I’m Gabe.”

“Gabe?” Travie gave her the same look everyone did when she told them her name. Of course she had reasons for not changing it. But she would say that she just liked it and gendering names was stupid. She just nodded which seemed to satisfy him as an answer.

“Whatcha still here for?” Travie spoke up again when she said nothing.

“Cheerleading practice. And my dad’s workin late at the office.” 

“Cheerleading?” Travie said with a lip curl.

“Yeah. I just made the team.”

“Not to be rude, but you seem cool, why would you do that?”

“I’m good at it… And what makes you think I’m cool?” Gabe laughed a little.

“I don’t know. Pretty, tall, nice clothes, good taste in music,” he gestured at her Ramones shirt, “Smokin outside the school like you don’t give a fuck, not assuming your guy friends are all straight. Seems pretty cool to me.”

Gabe smiled a little, “On paper I do sound kinda cool... I was in a band too.” she added, nudging Travie with her shoulder. Sometimes she was a bit of a flirt.

“Really? Whatcha play?”

“Bass. But I play guitar too and I have piano burned into my head from when I was a kid. I can sorta sing.”

“That’s cool as fuck. Lady bassists and sick as fuck. Like Joan Jett was a bassist for a while and she’s rad as hell.”

“Very true. I was thinking more like D’arcy from Smashing Pumpkins.”

“Kira Roessler, Black Flag.” he offered.

“Kim Gordon, Sonic Youth.”

“Jackie Fox, The Runaways.”

“All awesome. I wanna play again, but I don’t have a lot of friends that do.”

“I play guitar and drums- well, I play drums badly… We could jam sometime. Can I get your number?”

“Uh- yeah. Yeah.” Gabe smiled and put her number in Travie’s phone happily. There was a small chance that he was just hitting on her, she didn’t care. He was nice, funny, and both new and liked all-girl groups. The fact that he didn’t misgender her was kinda cool as well.

“Cool… So since you’re a cheerleader do you gotta go on that shitty camping thing next weekend?”

“Yeah. I don’t wanna go. ‘Think it would make me stand out more if I didn’t. So I gotta.”

“The football players will be there. Could be fun.” he shrugged a little.

“Really it just sounds like a trip for us to hook up.”

“It is,” Travie laughed.

“Perfect.”

“I know some of the players if you end up goin and wanna hang out with someone.”

“Maybe. I might convince my dad it’s a bad idea… Fuck- do you think I smell like smoke?” Gabe asked as a car pull into the parking lot. She stubbed her cigarette out under her boot quickly.

“Probably. Tell him it was me.”

“Yeah... I’ll text you.”

“Yeah. I wanna hear bout your band.” Travie said with his amazing smile, “Later Gabe.”

“Bye.”


	2. Clique High School Camping Trip Chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> figured i should update since i actually got a comment. so yeah comment if you wanna

Gabe’s dad sadly got an email about the camping trip and insisted Gabe went. He was convinced it was a good way for her and the girls to become friends. After a long fight of her telling him ‘Teenagers don’t work like that! You can’t force us to be friends! That actually makes us hate each other!’, she felt like she was talking to a bull. Being stubborn probably made her dad a great lawyer, but to her it was just annoying.

Fighting him was useless since she finally convinced him to let her on estrogen. With all the fighting they had been doing she figured it was easier to let this one go. 

Their most recent fight had been about her corset training. Her dad was completely right about how dangerous it was, but Gabe was right when she said she didn’t give a fuck. It also helped her dysphoria to have a cinched in waist. That had only been a few days before so she didn’t want to stir things back up. 

 

“Just sayin, you shouldn’t go. Lie. Come over mine for the weekend instead.” Travie offered, sitting on Gabe’s bed. She had been playing guitar with him for an hour, but she had to pack.  
Four weeks since the move, she still wasn’t unpacked, but now she was packing for a fuckin camping trip instead. 

“My dad will find out and I’ll be screwed.”

“Gabe, isn’t this like- not safe? Like those girls are so brutal.”

“I know. I could easily be murdered out in the woods, but I promised my dad and I owe ‘im.”

“Why?” 

“He’s payin for my hormones since we don’t have good insurance.” Gabe said without really thinking. She turned around to look for Travie’s reaction. He was just blank. “You knew, right?”

“Huh? Oh about you? Yeah.”

“Cool… So uh- yeah. I owe him. I just- I really don’t wanna go, man.”

“I know… If you want I’ll text my buddy Pete and have him sit with you on the bus so you’re not alone.”

“Yeah. Please.”

“Cool. He’s short and loud. You’ll find him easily.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem. I have a bunch you’ll hit it off.”

“Yeah?”

“Mhm… Just be safe. If you have trouble text me up, I’ll roll up there and grab you.”

 

Gabe was still nervous and mad when it came to be Saturday morning. Her dad dropped her at the school where the busses were picking them up. The ride had been awful since she was fighting with her dad the whole way. He either ignored her complaints, or just said ‘It’s too late.’  
No one seemed to want to talk to her despite them all being on the same team. Of course she was the outsider out somehow both the cheerleaders and the football players. Not one person even said hi when she showed up.

All three of Gabe’s friends didn’t answer her texts. It was 8AM on a Saturday so why would any of them be awake?  
‘God, I fuckin hate all of my friends,’ she thought to herself.

 

When the bus arrived, she sat alone towards to front with headphones in and her bag close. It was out of habit from city buses, but also since people might mess with her stuff. She hated the group of people she was stuck with. 

The driver made a last call for everyone to sit down and shut up some time later. He talked to the three coaches briefly then started the bus. Only a minute after that, a short boy hopped on the bus.  
“Sorry. Sorry. I know I’m late.” he said to the coach.

“Dammit, Wentz! Just sit down.”

Wentz shrugged it off, seeming completely unfazed by the coach yelling at him. He just smiled and headed towards the back where his team was. He stopped on the way when he noticed Gabe.

 

“Hey, you’re Travie’s friend,” he stated, sitting down and putting his bag on his lap.

“Wha?” Gabe asked when she took out her headphones.

“You’re Travie’s friend.” Wentz said again with a smile.

“Yeah. Gabe.”

“I’m Pete.”

Gabe nodded back and kept staring at her hands. She pulled her hoodie over them again. She had no clue what the hell to say. Travie said Pete was easy to talk to, she hoped to god that was true.

“You’re nervous, huh? Travie said you would be.” Pete said, watching her.

“Yeah. uh- the girls don’t like me too much.”

“Well, almost no one likes each other and if they do they’re fuckin so don’t worry.” 

“I’ll try not to. And I’ll try not to fuck anyone.”

“Eh. Don’t promise things. Bryars got lovely, hate filled eyes you can get lost in.”

Gabe laughed again, trying not to be too loud. 

“Honestly, though, I don’t wanna be here either. My mom made me.” Pete said rolling his eyes.

“My dad made me too.”

“Fuckin sucks.”

“Does.”

“Travie says you got good taste in music, yeah?”

“I guess.” Gabe offered her phone that was open to her music.

Pete looked through it for a bit. He smiled the whole time, “You got some weird shit, and like some stuff that I’m pretty sure isn’t english, but that’s cool. A lot of Against Me. Sick as fuck.”

“Hell yeah. Here,” Gabe offered one of her headphones. 

 

Pete was cool and funny and liked Gabe. He even choose to sleep next to Gabe’s sleeping bag on the cabins floor. They listened to music and talked trash about the two teams.  
Apparently Pete hated most of the boys and a lot of the girls hated him. He had dirt on everybody. Gabe wondered a little what he knew about her, and that was rather scary. Pete just said ‘Even I have stuff. It’s just not as interesting as Winter’s herpes thing. Or- it might be, but they don’t know about that shit.’  
Gabe was going to ask him about ‘his shit’, but the story about the football player with an STD seemed more interesting. Of course Pete was happy to tell that story.

 

The cabin was okayish, but kind of creepy. The floors -that they were sleeping on- creaked and the windows didn’t do much to stop the cold night air.  
It wasn’t ideal, but it was okay for a camping retreat. Everyone kind of knew it was going to be terrible before it even was.

The coaches wanted them to do team building shit, but mostly the teenagers just broke off to make out or do god-knows-what. They got through one round of ‘tell us a fact about yourself and see who relates’ before they gave up.

Gabe just ended up giving some pretty cheerleader cornrows since she was bored. The girl had to be the only other non-white girl on the team and she was happy someone could actually braid. For whatever reason Megan just didn’t have anything against Gabe like the other girls.  
Pete hung around to talk with Megan and Gabe since apparently they knew each other. He really just didn’t want to be with the football players. They had fun, as much fun as they could have.  
It wasn’t totally unbearable. 

 

Sleeping was another thing. Gabe didn’t sleep well outside of her own house. Hell, since the move she hadn’t gotten more than four hours a night. She was really uncomfortable knowing she wasn’t alone in the room.

 

“Psst. Gabe. Gaaabe,” Pete whispered in the dark. He didn’t get an answer so he climbed out of his sleeping bag and kneeled next to Gabe’s. Shaking her gently and sitting over her he asked, “Gabe?”

“What?” she whispered back, completely awake. 

Faker.

“Are you awake?”

“No.”

“It’s too late for sarcasm.”

“Is it?” she asked with more sarcasm.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Same.”

“Then hang out with me.”

Gabe sighed and pulled out her phone, checking the time. “Lay next to me. I’ll play something good.” she mumbled and untangled her headphones.

Pete moved his stuff even closer to Gabe. He laid down and happily took one of her headphones.  
Gabe skimmed through her playlists before picking one. Pete seemed pleased with the choice even though he was staring at her again. He even moved to his side to watch her laying peacefully with her eyes closed

 

“We should hang out sometime.” Pete stated in a whisper. 

“Yeah. We should.”

“Awesome.”


	3. Talking to Strangers On the Internet is Dangerous Unless You're Making Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> short update cause i suck. yay for nonbinary ryan ross. i dont even like panic at the disco but i fuckin love him. did you ever hear his song you're invited? its great.   
> anyway clique meeting people on tumblr chapter but at least this isnt a group chat fic :)
> 
> also commenting makes me update faster

“So, I take it it was a fun trip?” Travie said on Monday as he hung around Gabe’s locker.

“What makes you think that?” Gabe asked, looking up from her notebook. 

“You didn’t call me cryin and a certain little midget was talkin bout you.”

“Pete?”

“Mhm. You made a good impression on ‘im.”

“Oh. Yeah. He’s cool. Made the trip bearable. Girls still don’t like me a lot, but whatever.” 

“Maybe they’re jealous you have a better ass and set of legs them em.” Travie offered, looking Gabe up and down.

“Mr. McCoy.” Gabe snapped in a sarcastic way, “You dog.”

“Fuck off. You like it.”

“I love attention. You know that.”

 

Gabe was finally getting around to unpacking her stuff after over three weeks since the move. She had gotten rid of a lot of her more ‘masculine’ things before leaving the apartment. So she really didn’t own much.   
Hell, they lived in a house now with multiple floors, so she really did consider it an upgrade. But now her room was bare and uninteresting. Her dad offered to buy her posters and things, but she said she could wait until Hanukkah. Money seemed to be a little tight.

After a while she gave up on unpacking, mostly because she finally found her computer charger. -Gabe would have to apologize to her little brother later since apparently he didn’t take it.- She ended up laying on her purple bed and checked her laptop for the first time since the move. She had posted on her Tumblr that she was moving and changed NY to Chicago in her bio. So that explained the message she got from a kid she knew by the name William.

genuineandcounterfeit: you moved to chicago and didnt tell me??

She had talked to the young genderfluid kid a few times before. But that was only a few times so Gabe didn’t know she needed to tell them about everything in her life. Apparently William thought otherwise.

detoxretox: i did why?

genuineandcounterfeit: I LIVE RIGHT OUT OF CHICAGO

detoxretox: W H E R E?

genuineandcounterfeit: barrington  
girl we should hang out 

detoxretox: dude yes that would be so cool

genuineandcounterfeit: do you like it here

detoxretox: its alright. Girls are mean but im a cheerleader so whatever

genuineandcounterfeit: haha i could totally see you as a cheerleader. You have a new chicago man yet?

Detoxretox: nah. I was asked to go to some guys place rn but im unpacking

genuineandcounterfeit: gabey, you player

 

Gabe talked to them for the rest of the night. She forgot how cool and weird William was at the same time. They were barely thirteen, but they were mature and sweet as all hell. They were also trans and a hell of a guitar player.  
That made Gabe wonder if she could find other trans people in Chicago. She kind of wanted to have friends like her. Chicago was a big place and a very open minded city so there had to be some people.

detoxretox:   
moved to chicago recently. any of you guys live here/ illinois area?

The replies had a few random nonmutuals who said yes (and William who said ‘;)’). She only recognized one url.

prettyodd replied: yeah!

So she messaged them.

 

Detoxretox: hey i didnt know you live here

Prettyodd: yeah i do im not from here but yeah

Detoxretox: where about? like where in the state

Prettyodd: this is the awkward part

Detoxretox: ?

Prettyodd: i go to your school. i didnt even know it was you at first but i made the conection

Detoxretox: oh shit seriously?  
thats so fuckin cool

Prettyodd: not creepy?

Detoxretox: how would that be creepy?

Prettyodd: idk  
just thought it might be

Detoxretox: its not. I think its cool  
Whats your name? I cant find it on your blog

Prettyodd: i dont post it for safety   
Im ryan

Detoxretox: gabe. Are you a junior?

Prettyodd: sophomore 

Detoxretox: say hi to me tomorrow so i know who you are

Prettyodd: okay. 

Dont mention anything you see on here in person, okay?

Detoxretox: of course. 

 

Gabe wondered about that a little, but she remembered seeing Ryan posting personal stuff a lot. It always was tagged with ‘abuse- trigger’, so she left it alone.   
Ryan seemed cool. They used either they or she pronouns so that was another real trans friend Gabe had. And this one went to her school. Awesome. 

Ryan also didn’t post any pictures of themself. Sometimes they had piano covers of songs that was just video of their hands. They took a lot of aesthetic-y pictures of things in their life or their legs in thigh highs (Gabe noted that those were pretty and she needed a pair asap). But still none of their face were posted.  
So Gabe figured they were cool.


End file.
